Bach Ma National Park

Bach Ma Travel Blog

Yesterday morning, after a splendid night of karaoke and very little sleep, the original twelve of us first planning on going had dwindled to eight and we on the road by 8:30am. After a two hour van ride, a fourty-five minute twisty drive up the mountain, we reached our hotel Phong Lan. Setting out on the trails, we trekked down the Five-Lakes trail and even went for a swim in the fourth lake! It was freezing, none the less it was beautiful Carrying on down the connecting Rhododendron Falls trail, which sadly had none of the flowers in bloom, we reached the top of the waterfall. Words can't even describe the view. I took so many pictures, but none of them quite captured the depth of the valley and the height of the mountain tops. Five of us then decided to take the hike down the 689 stairs to the base of the waterfall and it was so worth it. Seeing how unbelievably massive the waterfall was is even harder to try and describe... Just enormous.

The walk back up was the worst thing ever. Every joint and muscle in body ached, and our entire group struggled with the ridiculous steps up. Finally reaching the top at 3:40pm, it was such an accomplishment. With the thunder growling and the sun hidden behind the now gray clouds, we decided to head back to the hotel. The trail was misted with fog and it was getting dark fast. Within fifteen minutes it began to pour and we walked for atleast forty-five minutes in the rain before getting back to our rooms. By the time we were back, I'm guessing we walked around 10-12km that day, 4 of which were in the rain.

Completely soaked, we had an ice cold shower and got ready for dinner, which was absolutely delightful. Heading to bed around 8:30pm, Chelsea, Yasmin, Maury, and I woke up at 5:00am this morning and hiked up to the summit (about 2km) to watch the sunrise. Right on time, we spotted it over the horizon at 5:48am. Once we made it back to the hotel, we had some breakfast, but I didn't feel very well at all so I stayed in for the afternoon. We left the park around 3 and made it back to Da Nang by 5 and now I'm completely ready for bed.